The reading was quite interesting and touched upon what I think is one of the most important aspects in translating, which is the trade off between rhythm and accuracy. This is the one of the hardest aspects of translating and I think that depending on the text, the importance of the trade off varies, as for example, when Seidensticker talks about his translation of the famous passsage where the train comes out of the tunnel and the night is white. In my opinion, when translating that passage the diction and beauty of the words outweighs the rhythm of the phrase but trying to translate it 1:1 is a hopeless endeavour as you either lose out in the eloquence of the phrase, or the rhythm. If he was faithful to the translation, it would’ve meant rhyming white with night which creates rhyme where there initially wasn’t, affecting the rhythm of the phrase. Hence why either way I don’t think he could’ve satisfied every Japanese reader.
When he talks about the impact of translation early on in the reading, it was interesting as it was quite different to the reading from last week, where it mentioned that through translation sometimes the original work can be changed and improved on, a stark contrast in opinion. Maybe I wouldn’t say translating could make a piece better, just different. Maybe the translated phrase brushes off on the reader more than intended and whether the author likes it or not, is subjective. I think the most important part is just staying true to what the author is trying to say and not injecting yourself into it but that being said, is much harder than it sounds.
Jon
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